Latest Ambulance News

NHSCC launch ambulance commissioning strategy for the future

The NHS Clinical Commissioners' National Ambulance Commissioners Network (NACN) has launched a new discussion paper on the future of ambulance commissioning.

SECAmb and Kent FRS launch life-saving partnership

A potentially life-saving scheme which will see Kent firefighters attend certain medical emergencies has begun as part of the emergency services’ collaboration with South East Coast Ambulance Service.

First contract for new emergency services network awarded

The first contract to provide a replacement communications system for the emergency services has been awarded to Kellogg Brown & Root Limited (KBR), the Home Office has announced.

Covert Armour for Ambulance Crews and Paramedics

Body armour is not often seen as necessary equipment for Ambulance Crews, as protective clothing is usually seen as the domain of the Police, Private Security and the Military. This is partly because body armour conjures up images of bulky, full-body protection complete with ammunition pouches and tactical protection. However, body armour is incredibly thin, flexible and lightweight, and people no longer have to choose between discretion and protection. For any dangerous occupation, protective clothing is a necessity, and sadly this all too often includes Paramedics and Ambulance Crews.

Air and ground ambulance services to benefit from recycling scheme

Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust have joined forces to place clothes recycling bins at some of the region’s ambulance stations to generate income to help fund YAA operation and provide defibrillators in local communities.

Lower-cost private medical insurance launched for emergency workers

CS Healthcare has announced the launch of a new health insurance plan designed to ‘bridge the gap’ and connect people working in the public sector with quality private health insurance and quicker access to treatments.

Latest Ambulance Blogs

Drones and BWV in spotlight at Emergency Services Show 2015

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Body Worn Video (BWV) will be key talking points at this year’s Emergency Services Show , which takes place the NEC in Birmingham on 23 and 24 September.

Latest Ambulance Features

Appreciation of the situation - the terror threat in the UK

Dr Dave Sloggett looks at a recent milestone that passed without fanfare and analyses its implications for the continuing global war on terror.

Russian Roulette - UK intervention in Syria under the microsope

Security correspondent Dr Dave Sloggett asks if Russia’s military intervention in Syria might have consequences for the security landscape in the United Kingdom.

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NHSCC launch ambulance commissioning strategy for the future

19 NOVEMBER 2015

The NHS Clinical Commissioners' National Ambulance Commissioners Network (NACN) has launched a new discussion paper on the future of ambulance commissioning.

‘Developing an ambulance commissioning strategy: Five Year Forward View and beyond’ sets out how ambulance services work within the current system, what the NACN believes the future could look like, and the challenges that need to be overcome for this to happen.

Jane Hawkard, Chair of the NACN and Chief Officer, NHS East Riding of Yorkshire CCG said: “With the recent publication of the Urgent and Emergency Care Review there is a real opportunity to seize the moment and to move at pace to make changes to the way in which ambulance services are commissioned and provided to the benefit of patients. We can only do this through working collaboratively, something which the NACN strongly believes in, and we have consulted widely with partners across the urgent and emergency care system when producing this paper.

"We hope that the issues raised in ‘Developing an ambulance commissioning strategy: Five Year Forward View and beyond’ will support us all in providing the public with a sustainable modern, fit-for-purpose service that delivers high-quality care."

Key recommendations in the strategy include:
• There should be a refocus on commissioning and provider systems that support non-conveyance and provision of the right care closer to home as its principal aim for most patients, while continuing to provide immediate transport and treatment solutions for those emergency patients who need a fast response.
• A shift away from time-based targets for the majority of responses, to ones focused around patient and clinician experience and patient outcomes
• The ambulance service should develop into a mobile health provider working in multidisciplinary teams.
• A focus on an improved triage that will be consistent, systematic and focused on the right response for the patient (based on patient outcomes and appropriate speed of response).
• A workforce and training plan developed with commissioners that supports the shift to new models of care which are realistic in terms of timescales for implementation and address geographical differences.
• We should increase communication and engagement with the public to provide more clarity around expectations, and how we can shift to providing the ‘right’ response for them as a mobile treatment service and not simply a speed of response service. This includes using the internet to speed communication with both the workforce and service users with robust help desk features (like Zendesk). Applying the latest technologies permit the ability to customize Zendesk, tailoring the apps to the specific needs of the emergency services we offer. Critical communications save lives in the long run, and updating the ability to communicate to large audiences using software automation is key.

You can read the full discussion paper at www.nhscc.org/latest-news/ambulance-commissioning-strategy-5yfv/

SECAmb and Kent FRS launch life-saving partnership

19 OCTOBER 2015

A potentially life-saving scheme which will see Kent firefighters attend certain medical emergencies has begun as part of the emergency services’ collaboration with South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb).

The first stage of the co-responding scheme involves crews from Sittingbourne, Larkfield, Sevenoaks, Herne Bay, Sheppey, Margate and Tunbridge Wells. From April 2016 it is expected that the scheme will roll out with all wholetime crews across the county. Firefighters will respond to life-threatening emergencies such as cardiac arrests, chest pains and breathing difficulties.

Celebrate the Service's best partnership working at the 2015 Excellence in Fire and Emergency Awards - book your place at One Great George Street on 4 December

SECAmb Paramedic and Immediate Emergency Care Responder (IECR) project lead, Matt England said: "This is all about saving more lives. When someone is in cardiac arrest, with every minute that passes their chances of survival diminish significantly.

"This great scheme will give us up to an extra 120 defibrillators out there in communities across Kent which has to be a good thing. All the firefighters volunteered to be part of the scheme and act as an additional response to our crews. We’ll always assign an ambulance response to the call at the same time but if the firefighters reach the scene of an emergency before ambulance crews, they will be able to begin vital life-saving treatment."

As with the existing community first responder scheme, they will always be backed up, and qualified ambulance crews will be assigned at the same time as the firefighters who will respond in fire engines or in fire service cars. Firefighters involved in the pilot have all undertaken the immediate emergency care responder training. Developed by SECAmb, the training will enable firefighters to provide treatment to patients in the moments before ambulance crews arrive.

In Kent it builds on the existing co-responding work that KFRS has been doing on behalf of SECAmb since November 2004. This has involved seven on-call stations: Hoo, Wye, Marden, Dymchurch, Paddock Wood, Eastchurch and Edenbridge.

During that time fire crews have attended more than 8,200 medical incidents on behalf of the ambulance service. In addition to this new scheme, KFRS has put defibrillators on all KFRS blue-light vehicles including fire engines and officer response cars. All staff using those vehicles have been trained in their use.

David Escudier, KFRS Operational and Development Manager, said: "We have been responding to medical emergencies on behalf of SECAmb in some areas since 2004 and have had a lot of public support for this work. We are therefore delighted to be able to work with SECAmb to extend this potentially life-saving work.

"It makes sense that if an equipped and trained firefighter can get to a medical emergency first, or is already on the scene of an incident, that they provide appropriate medical assistance while an ambulance is on its way. We hope that this pilot will prove a success and we can roll it out to other wholetime stations next year."

First contract for new emergency services network awarded

03 SEPTEMBER 2015

The first contract to provide a replacement communications system for the emergency services has been awarded to Kellogg Brown & Root Limited (KBR), the Home Office has announced.

KBR successfully bid for Lot 1 and will now become the delivery partner for the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP), starting work immediately.

"We are determined that our goal to provide the UK’s emergency services with the best communications network in the world is implemented as quickly as possible and I am delighted that I can now announce we have awarded the first contract. We remain on course to sign further contracts later this year," he said.

"Making sure our emergency services have the best tools to help them do their job is paramount. As well as offering the emergency services much more capacity, flexibility and functionality than the old system, the new network will also save the taxpayer well over £1bn over the next 15 years."

Find out more about new developments to improve firefighter safety - book your place at our FIRE Congress 2015

The new services will replace the existing system from mid-2017 as the current contracts expire. The Emergency Services Network will use a commercial network to deliver broadband data services. The current service, Airwave, is delivered using a private mobile radio system.

KBR is a major international operator specialising in technology-driven engineering, procurement and construction, and is a market leader in the successful programme management and delivery of large infrastructure schemes.

Negotiations with the preferred bidders for the remaining contracts – Motorola (Lot 2) and EE (Lot 3) are continuing and contract awards are expected in the autumn.

ESMCP is a Home Office-led, cross-departmental programme set up to provide cheaper, better and smarter communications services for the emergency services, called the Emergency Services Network (ESN).

The contracts for the existing emergency services systems provided by Airwave Solutions Ltd will begin to expire in 2017. A replacement service is necessary and re-competition is legally required by the expiry in 2020 of the existing contracts.

Drones and BWV in spotlight at Emergency Services Show 2015

13 AUGUST 2015

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Body Worn Video (BWV) will be key talking points at this year’s Emergency Services Show, which takes place the NEC in Birmingham on 23 and 24 September. FIRE reports:

Very much under the media spotlight this summer, UAVs can offer incredible benefits to the response, rescue and resilience sector. This emerging technology will be discussed in detail in the free-to-attend seminar sessions. In the Innovation Theatre on 23 September delegates can hear from West Midlands Fire Service, which has over 10 years’ experience of using UAVs in partnership with other category one services. On 24 September Justin Pringle, a drone developer with Drone Ops will give an overview of the benefits UAVs can offer the emergency services, particularly in managing ground crew risk.

Meanwhile in the exhibition (also free to attend) visitors can find out about the UAV training courses offered by Sky-Futures who can train remote pilots to fly safely and procedurally using best practice from manned aviation and its 8,500 hours of operational drone flying experience. In collaboration with the Fire Service College it has produced structured, CAA approved courses for the police, fire and rescue service, ambulance service, USAR and other emergency organisations.

On the Excelerate stand visitors can learn more about the benefits of UAVs for achieving 360-degree aerial views at incidents and video streaming to required locations. They can also see demonstrations of Excelerate’s automatic pole-climbing camera and communications system providing a rapid CCTV surveillance and data relay system. Primetech meanwhile will launch new MultiNet Comms portable, battery-powered communications system, which incorporates UAVs for live-streamed aerial imagery gathering.

Visitors with an interest in air surveillance should also pay a visit to the UK Civil Air Patrol stand in the Emergency Response Zone to find out how this voluntary organisation can support the blue light emergency services and local government civil contingencies with affordable air observation and air to ground photography.

Around the exhibition visitors can find out about the latest developments in surveillance and recording technology. Edesix, Excelerate Technology, Handheld UK, Niton 999 Group, Pinnacle Response, Reveal and WCCTV are among the leading names who have all booked stands.

BWV benefits on show
The benefits of Body Worn Video (BWV) will feature prominently on both the exhibition stands and in the Innovation Seminar Theatre. Reveal body cameras for example are already being used by 30 of the 42 police forces up and down the country. They record high quality audio and video which gives officers an immediate and exact record of anything they are dealing with. Additionally, unique features such as the front-facing screen display footage in real time, which can have positive effects on the behaviour and conduct of subjects when they are being recorded.

Experts speaking on the topic include Ben Clark, Inspector, Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) who will present on both 23 and 24 September, giving an overview of the MPS BWV Project. On 23 September West Midlands Fire & Rescue Service will also share their experience of BWV. Its Research & Development team has tested a wide range of BWV products and assessed its potential for improving operational planning, response, debrief, and training for interoperability and cross service data sharing.

The NEC is linked to Birmingham International Station and Birmingham Airport and is directly accessible from the UK motorway network. Parking for visitors and exhibitors is free of charge.